My paintings explore
the urban landscape, emphasizing the geometric forms, rich colors, and textures found in hillside neighborhoods, city skylines,
industrial river valleys, and steel mills. Other works recreate the visual delight I find in world travels and
coastal New England. Using a vibrant palette, strong design, and active surfaces, I try to produce memorable works which
refer to reality, but have their own objective life as paintings.

My steel mill paintings are included in a book, "100 Artists of the Mid-Atlantic," published by Schiffer
Publishing, Ltd. in 2011.

Visit a gallery by clicking a link on the left.

Artist Cynthia F. Cooley is known for her vivid paintings of steel
mill interiors and of Pittsburgh's hillside neighborhoods and industrial valleys. She has had 50 individual exhibitions, including
the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC and the 1989 Artist of the Year at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.

Cooley is a graduate of Lawrence University, which honored her with the 1997 Distinguished Career Achievement Award. She was
named a "Master Artist" in Pittsburgh in 1998. Over 2000 of her works are in private collections. Over 90 public
and corporate collections include the Carnegie Museum of Art, PA State Museum, Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Butler
Institute of American Art, University of Pittsburgh, Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh History Center, Penn State Mineral Sciences
Museum, Pittsburgh Public Schools, and the Duquesne Club.